by Jeff Gluck, USA TODAY Sports

by Jeff Gluck, USA TODAY Sports

PORT LEYDEN, N.Y. - The image of Kevin Ward Jr. the nation has gleaned from the video circulating since the early morning hours Sunday won't be how people here remember him.

They see the easygoing 20-year-old who loved to frequent Dorrity's cafe for breakfast, ride snowmobiles and have fun.

This Adirondack community still is reeling from the death of the Port Leyden native, who was killed Saturday night when he exited his sprint car and was struck by Tony Stewart's car -- his body thrown down the slick surface where they were racing 140 miles southwest of here at Canandaigua Motorsports Park.

The community will gather Wednesday for visitation at Trainor Funeral Home in Boonville, N.Y., then again Thursday for a funeral service at South Lewis High School in nearby Turin, where Ward graduated two years ago. The family wanted a place large enough to embrace Ward's many friends.

Friends like Aaron Fuller, 19, who was a year behind Ward in school, but bonded with him over a mutual love of racing.

They rode snowmobiles together - including an area near Ward's home in a town where snowmobile crossing signs are as common as stop signs. Fuller built a truck for Ward to race at nearby Adirondack International Speedway. But Ward didn't get a chance to drive it, instead choosing to focus on sprint cars in which he excelled.

Fuller, wearing a ragged red hat with the logo of racing apparel company Alpinestars, said his friend was "going places."

"He was a good, clean driver for the most part," Fuller said. "I believe he would have ended up with the World of Outlaws (the top sprint car series).

"Nice kid, didn't say a whole heck of a lot," waitress Lacey Kellogg said, pointing to a booth where Ward often sat. "He was down to earth, mellow. That's why I was surprised to see him so ruffled."

Kellogg was referring to Ward's last moments, where video shows an angry, frustrated racer after being spun by Stewart. Ward got out of his car at Canandaigua and walked down the track to gesture at the NASCAR icon. Then Stewart's rear right tire made contact with Ward, and he was gone.

"He was always easygoing and happy, ready to have fun," Fuller said Tuesday.

Across the Black River from Dorrity's, Lyons Falls' weekly summer farmers market was held as scheduled despite the rain. Taylor Eaton, 15, set up her stand under a shelter and sold homemade cookies and fresh-baked pies.

Port Leyden and Lyons Falls, Eaton said, are so small that everyone not only knows each other but "feel like family."

"We're all really close," said Eaton, who once lived with her mom in a home owned by Ward's grandmother, their landlord for two years. "When something happens, everyone around here is there for each other. Everybody enjoyed his company. He was very well-liked."

Peggy Abbott, Eaton's grandmother, said her late husband Richard used to do some fabricating work for NASCAR Hall of Famer Richie Evans, who won nine National Modified Championships. She said Ward was "sort of a local hero" because of his racing ability and was known as the best in the area.

How good was he? She motioned to her surroundings.

"Well, he came from here and was on the same track as Tony Stewart, so I'd say that's a pretty good indication," she said.

Ward's family remained out of the public eye. A man outside the Wards' brown, ranch-style home indicated the family was not ready to comment.

The family business, The Westward Painting Co., just across the river from the Ward family home, is often a hangout for the local racers. But all of its garage bay doors were closed, the parking area empty.

South Lewis Central School District superintendent Doug Premo politely declined comment on former student Ward out of respect to the family but he did release a statement:

"He was a well-liked student who always had a smile on his face and had an obvious love and passion for racing from his earliest days. Our entire school community was extremely proud of Kevin, is saddened by his loss, and sends our deepest sympathies, thoughts, and prayers to his family, friends, and loved ones."

The district's high school/middle school building, site of Thursday's funeral, is surrounded by farmland. Across the street from the crescent-shaped driveway in front of the school, a herd of cows grazed in the rain.

Most everyone else spent the day indoors, the tragedy never far from their thoughts.

"Everybody is just taking it all in," Kellogg said. "It's hard, because you know everybody - they all grow up together. I just feel bad for the family."